Speaker
Date
Book
Series

Maundy Thursday 2021

Apr 07, 2021   ·  

Many of you have heard me tell of my family’s experience of this kind of Eucharistic vision on Navajoland, where we were assisting with COVID relief and building community gardens.  You’ve heard me tell of how, when my sister, Cornelia, risks her own health and safety to deliver fresh produce, eggs, and milk to sheltering families, she is quite literally handing over the bread of heaven.  Or how, when my brother, Leon, hauls barrels of water to remote communities with no access to running water, he is literally offering up the cup of salvation.  Or as my shimá, Paula, and her husband Hank chop and deliver loads of firewood to sheltering elders, they are literally sharing the light of Christ that keeps the frigid night winds at bay and preserves life.  Theirs is a vision of Eucharist that shapes us to live life in radical relationship, as a sacrifice for others.  This is, I think, what Augustine meant when he wrote that, if we receive the Eucharist as it has been given to us, we “become what we receive,” the bread of heaven broken for the life of the world.  More

Conquering Fear: Palm Sunday 2021

Apr 07, 2021   ·  

Evidently, the crowd knows who Jesus is, but the difference now is that Jesus doesn’t silence them. He is ready to fully assume his messianic identity and confront the authorities in the capital city. Matthew and John in their respective versions quote a passage from the prophet Zechariah, which talks about a king that will come riding on a donkey not a warhorse, one who will be peaceful and meek. This king was David coming back to Jerusalem, peaceful and humble. He had been saved and vindicated by God. And Jesus is seen as the new David who will save his people from oppression. More

We are called to See not just look, Easter Sunday 2021

Apr 04, 2021   ·  

Mary the disciple is able to see because she is within the community and she can build on what is seen before her, now not just a stolen body, but a missing body, the wrapping left, the cloth left, she then is able to see angels and then her teacher.  I wonder if she would have been stuck on one part of it if she did not have a community to nudge her along, to help her see something radically new, life-changing new, transformative?  More

They Wish To See Jesus.

Mar 21, 2021   ·  

So how do I show you the divine spark this morning?  How do I open the door so that you get to see Jesus?  Where do I find Andrew to ask where he is and if it is okay for you all to come and have a peek?  Come and have a chat that leads to a lifelong friendship, connection?  I am not sure, and I know that I do not have to do it alone.  I do not have to be the magic conduit to God, I point and hopefully, you go together, you make community and you see a way forward that brings more God, more Love, more light into the world.     More

Serpent Nipping at Our Heels

Mar 14, 2021   ·  

  The Reverend Michele Morgan Sunday, March 14th, 2021  Lent 4B    Jesus said, “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man … More

What is woven into the story to justify our privilege and prosperity

Mar 01, 2021   ·  

Now, I don’t blame Peter, here.  He has a clear idea of what he is expecting from the Messiah who would deliver God’s people into life.  And whatever it may have looked like, it didn’t look like rejection.  Steven Charleston, one-time Bishop of Alaska and member of the Choctaw Nation, describes how, in an “[Indigenous] community built on acceptance and inclusion … exile is the very worst form of punishment” (87).  For Peter, the Messiah was supposed to deliver God’s people from exile, not suffer exile himself.  So Peter pulls Jesus aside and corrects him, something any one of us might do with a friend whose potential we see, even if they cannot.  So, Jesus’ response is a little curious, then, isn’t it? More

A moment in the spotlight

Feb 21, 2021   ·  

I did not miss reminding you all of your mortality, it seems we all are well aware of it right now, ashes are not necessary while we are all/or should be wearing masks.  I did ask people at the Ash Wednesday service to consider these questions,   1. Is there a daily action/behavior that you might take on during Lent that would help you affirm God’s life-giving power over death?   2.  Is there a daily action/ behavior that you want to let go of during Lent in order to embrace God’s promise of new life. More

Of change and being changed

Feb 14, 2021   ·     •   “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!” Suddenly when they looked around, they saw no one with them any more, but only Jesus.

We all have the potential for that kind of transformation and we can ignore it or we can embrace it, and face the consequences of giving a new voice into the world. This kind of Change can bring us out of our selfish needs and for many of us it has been on a slow simmer for a long time.  We have watched the unfairness of the pandemic, in our country and in the world.  We have watched the unrest caused by white supremacy, we have seen the hatred and violence of warring politics.  We have watched politicians locked down in their own ways of always doing things and are frightened by the results.   More

In it for the long haul

Feb 07, 2021   ·  

“Offer yourself to God, like Jesus did, with love and compassion in service to others, and you’ll know what it is that you have to give and will be sustained in whatever that is for the long haul.” More

Teaching and learning (“Hózhóogo naasháa doo: In beauty I walk.)

Jan 31, 2021   ·  

When Baxter Liebler founded St. Cristopher’s Mission, he, like most other Christian missionaries came to teach the Way to those he thought had never known it.  And, yet, in the end, it was the Navajo who taught Baxter Liebler the Way.  And, to his credit, Fr. Liebler became open to the work of the Spirit that preceded him in this place.  More than once, he accepted invitations to join Navajo medicine men in praying for sick children, and on one occasion, a medicine man asked Fr. Liebler to pray for his own infant son.  The medicine man’s traditional prayers were good, he told Fr. Liebler, but “You make good “Jesus-talk,” and holding up two fingers together, he added in his own prophetic voice, “Two good make strong good” (55).   More